THE MARINE WORM. -Probably much the 

 greater proportion of our wharves are by this 

 time quite unsound, and by no means safe places 

 for making fast heavy ships during a gale. The 

 immense pressure of a line of clippers against the 

 weather side of a wharf, and the tugging, strain- 

 ing and plunging of those on the lee side, re- 

 quire some substantial support, greater than we 

 think the majority of our wharves will offer, in 

 their present condition. On Wednesday last, we 

 were shown a small portion of a pile, taken from 

 Cunningham's wharf, which was constructed in 

 the latter part of the year 1851, or the first part 

 of 1852, and is consequently about five years old. 

 The sample shown HS was literally perforated in 

 all parts by the marine worm, and several of their 

 bores resembled those made by a half-inch auger. 

 When the worm first enters the wood, it is very 

 diminutive, and its hole can scarcely be detected. 

 After effecting a lodgment, it increases rapidly ; n 

 size, and its destructiveness is proportionably 

 augmented. Its progress is protected by a soft 

 white shell, performing the duty of a sheath for 

 its body, which is soft and tender, and protecting 

 it from contact with the wood, except in the re- 

 gion of the head. This shell also serves as a per- 

 fect lining to the perforation made, and continues 

 throughout its length. Squared piles are more 

 rapidly destroyed than round ones on which the 

 bark has been allowed to remain, because the bark 

 being soft and fibrous, clogs the auger of the 

 worm, and greatly retards its progress ; and this 

 is wanting in square piles. For the same reason, 

 these worms prefer moderately hard wood to that 

 which is soft. Eastern vessels engaged in the 

 lumber trade with the West Indies, instead of be- 

 ing coppered, are generally "sheathed" with thin 

 boards, not over half an inch in thickness, laid 

 over a sort of prepared paper. The worms in the 

 Caribbean. sea quickly perforate this sheathing, 

 which rarely lasts over two years, but their further 

 progress is effectually barred by the paper, which 

 their augers cannot penetrate on account of being 

 clogged. The bottom of the vessel is thus pre- 

 served from their attacks, and at the same time 

 she is rendered somewhat more buoyant by the 

 addition of her sheathing, which necessarily en- 

 larges her bottom surface. Should we be visited 

 * this winter by any very heavy gale, it is altogeth- 

 er probable that considerable damage may ensue 

 from the rotten and worm-eaten condition of our 

 wharves, most of which have been constructed 

 Ing enough to, by this time, have become effec- 

 tually perforated by the worm, which abounds in 



Dur waters. 



Tne Great eTTc^riosity of the A ge. 



Without question the greatest natural living 

 curiosity in the United States, is now on exhi- 

 bition in Charleston, S. C. The Mercury de- 

 scribes it as a living negro child with two heads, 

 four arms and tour legs. It is six years old, 

 very intS ligentf S peak3 With both youths sings 

 weU waltzes and keeps time. This much the 

 bi savs but the beholder cannot dismiss from 

 * that he has before him two children 



IV. JL . is.fi uiu. 



Tnu TRUTH OP THB FLORAL LEG STORY, Sometime 

 ago the Bulletin republished from an Eastern paper, an 

 extraordinary story of a natural flower growing out of a 

 boy's leg. It appears that Samuel J. Parker, of Ithaca 

 Tompkins county, N. Y., did not feel particularly pleased 

 with the Atlantic papers circulating the curious floral tale, 

 and, on the 19th November last, addressed to the N. Y. 

 Tribune a note on the subject, in which he says : 



I notice in your paper, an article quoted from an " ex- 

 change paper," making some disparaging remarks on the 

 singular growth out of a leg of a child in this place. It is 

 time that, when this article is running the rounds of the/ 

 stress, the truth should be known. It is unjust to Pro*' 

 H iwley, (late of the medical college of Geneva,) anr\ A 

 the medical profession in this part of the country, to i \ 

 resent that either the Professor or we, any of us, are \ 

 very silly as to believe that any actual vegetable grew ot . 

 of the leg of this boy. The pr^s does us great injustices 

 to speak of " oranure flowers," or " aster flowers," as a 

 reality. I may say that the diseased leg is like a carrot or 

 tuaip in shape, and if any one should say that I paid dis- 

 ease nude a man's leg a carrot or turnip, he would mis- 

 re present my langnfige grossly. 



The facts are, that out of a preternaturally large leg 

 <"-py a fungoid stem ; and when partly grown the end of 

 ic wre a slight resemblance to a single orange hud just 

 ib wit o open. When at full growth it had some slight re- 

 .-ujmblance to a China-aster flower or dahlia when open. 

 But the growth was animal blood circulated in the abnor- 

 mal growth. This animal growth is now preserved in 

 alcohol, und will be submitted to several medical societies. 

 It is like, to use my language, sea-weed. A stem a few 

 inches loner ; where it expands like a mushroom, or end of 

 a se*-weed, is a smooth circnlar space. Then outside of 

 this circular space ran fibres like sea- weed, with the minute-' 

 blood vessels giving cale through the thin animal tissue. 



Now call it what yon please, sea-weed, mushroom, China- 

 aeter, orange bud. it is a rare form of a very common dis- 

 ease, " the bloody funcrus," known for centuries to the 

 medical world. I believe It a rare species, however, and 

 well worth figuring and describing in our medical journals. 

 Please disabuse the public of the contemptible rumor, and 

 let a matter of fact stand as it is, a rare form of animal 

 malignant growth. j j- Jf* *-? 

 __ _ / 



"o Europe and this 

 i nounced it one individual child. 



have pro 



Our Carson Valley Correspondence. 



GENOA, CARSON VALLEY, Jan. 5th, 1858. 

 EDITOR OF THE SAN FRANCISCO HERALD :- 

 Although it i. quite cold enough for me here no 

 I am informed by some of the oldest inhabitant. 

 that the winter is remarkably mild ; we have had 

 three slight falls of snow, all of which disappeared 

 in a day or two-the morning3 are frosty, but tc 

 wards noon it gets very pleasant. No rain having 

 fallen, the miners at Gold Canon are doing no 



A party of men from this-place started to- 

 day to explore the head of Carson river, expecting 

 to finarich diggings. I am my self going for a da> 

 or two into this region, and will in my next g ve 

 you an account of my explorations/'Among tt 

 Lost remarkable natural curiosities I have seen 

 in this country is a petrified egg, which I found 

 about the middle of the Valley-it is about the 

 size of .a goose egg, of a bluish color, and a. har< 

 as a rock. I will send it to you by the 1 



Washoes remainng 



ever, returned with frozen feet. 



